dance of the korybante

“A little macaque nestles its head on a pigeon that responds peacefully on Neilingding Island, China. Three months ago, the macaque was born on the island, but strayed from its mother. Luckily, it was taken in by work staff in the protective station and made the acquaintance of the pigeon.” (via heaven spent)

This photo is just too awesome. It sums up what we consider to be part of the human condition: the impenetrable isolation of the individual, the desperate longing for intimacy, for oneness with another. Obviously, its not just humans that feel that way. This reminds me of the story that hit after the tsunami in 2004 of Owen, an orphaned baby hippopotamus, who found solace in the companionship of Mzee, a giant land tortoise in a wildlife preserve in Kenya. Usually we stick with what we know, our own species. But in the absence of that luxury, or sometimes in spite of it, we choose companionship with another animal, a dog, a cat, a goldfish. Nikola Tesla, the inventor, was eccentric and lived in a hotel in New York with no close friends. There was a woman who wanted to marry him, but her father wouldn’t let her, because he was poor, and strange, and Romanian. So he lived alone, and opened his window to the pigeons that roosted outside. He let them into his room and gave them names. They were his closest companions at the time that he died.